In a communications network many special services are furnished under the direct control of the customer, and a customer who may be unfamiliar with the operation of a system is prompted automatically by machine generated announcements. Thus, in these systems each time a customer initiates an action, the system prompts the customer as to the next action to be taken.
These systems are referred to herein as interactive systems. An example of such a system is found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,475,189 entitled, "Automatic Interactive Conference Arrangement", which issued to D. E. Herr et al on Oct. 2, 1984.
In the Herr et al arrangement the conference controller, or host, could summon an operator by temporarily disconnecting from the bridge and keying the digit "0" using a touch-tone key set at the controller's station. In response to the digit "0", the conference arrangement would establish an audio connection to an operator's position. Since the operator's position was similarly equipped with a touch-tone key set, the operator could summon additional conferees or join the conference using the audio channel as one leg of the conference bridge. Also, while talking to the host in a privacy mode, the operator could further instruct the host as to the proper use of the conference facility.
While the Herr et al arrangement is wholly suitable for its intended purpose, the audio connection to the operator's position merely gives the operator the same control capability as the conference host and does not inform the operator of the detailed status of the conference.